


Tintinnabulation

by coaldustcanary



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-28
Updated: 2010-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-14 04:57:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coaldustcanary/pseuds/coaldustcanary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal is driven to distraction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tintinnabulation

Mal was the sort of man who rarely admitted defeat. Oh, he might accept temporary setbacks as part of the greater battle to be won, but actual loss? Capitulation? Since Serenity Valley, not ever.

He was beginning to suspect, however, that he might have to force Kaylee to figure out what the gorram hell was wrong with his ship, because after hours of searching, tinkering, and frustration, he still could not discover the problem that was driving him to distraction. Grimacing, he raked his fingers through his hair and sat down at the dining table with a scowl and a drink to soothe his nerves. At first, in the morning, he had chalked up the strange noises to his own fuzzy head. It would follow, he assumed, that his ears might be ringing after the explosion, courtesy of Jayne, that had dissuaded their pursuers from attempting to regain their lost property again the evening before. Of course, the same explosion had nearly cost Jayne his own life, but Mal had been in a generous mood after the heist, best not to be too critical.

Yet the ringing noise had persisted into the day, and Mal had set himself the task of tracking down the source. It seemed that every corner of his ship was rattling, ringing, and clinking. Just when he thought he might have found the source of the infuriating sound, the noise would abate, and he would find himself elbow-deep in an mess of wires looking for something loose, or bodily halfway into the food cupboard to find the dropped spoon clearly causing the noise, or – to Wash’s apparent great amusement – wiggling the copilot’s chair firmly with a scowl to see if some bolt was loose and causing the noise.

Oh, and the amusement, that did not help matters one bit, either. When questioned, Wash had simply grinned at him and for once refrained from opening his mouth other than to claim - with not quite enough innocence to cover the barely-contained laughter in his voice – that he heard absolutely nothing. Zoe’s mild “Sir?” had seemed only like treachery. Kaylee had assured him that there was nothing wrong with Serenity, nothing at all, she was sure of it, and everything was shiny. Neither Jayne nor Simon had seemed to understand what he was saying, the former because he wasn’t thinking at all past the well-oiled gun pieces arrayed before him, the latter because he was apparently thinking too much, attention completely buried in medical files from the Cortex.

River had apparently heard the ringing, but that did little to make Mal feel any relief. He had asked her, once when he heard the ringing most clearly, echoing briefly through the cargo bay, if she knew where it was coming from, but she only grinned at him from her perch on the hold’s walkway railings, her voice a laughing singsong.

“What a world of merriment their melody foretells. How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle in the icy air of night. While the stars they oversprinkle and the heavens seem to twinkle with a crystalline delight, keeping time, time, time in a sort of runic rhyme…”

With a muffled groan, Mal had stalked back toward the kitchen in sudden ringing-less silence to find Inara and the Shepherd quietly enjoying tea and discussing something he could not quite overhear, but that seemed to amuse the both of them. With a snort, he had poured his drink and sat down across the room to glower and wonder if he was possibly losing his gorram mind.

And then he heard it. Again. Clearly. Close. With a low growl, he slammed his mug down on the table with a bang, startling Inara and the Shepherd, just now bringing their teacups to the sink, into stillness as they gawked at him.

The ringing stopped. And Mal nearly exploded.

“ _Gou huang-tang_! What in all hells is that?” He surged up from his seat and began to look around the room rapidly, grinding his teeth near audibly.

“Mal? What is…what?” Inara’s bemused question halted him, and the continued silence let him answer.

“The ringing I’ve been hearing all gorram day! All over my ship, everywhere I go! Something’s broken, somewhere. I’m used to bits falling off, time to time, but this is driving me mad!” Mal was vaguely aware that he was beginning to sound ridiculous, but he couldn’t help it at this point. Inara blinked at him, and for a moment her continuous composure was broken by the look of sudden comprehension that passed over her features. The Shepherd’s lips, on the other hand, Mal noticed with resignation, were twitching toward a smile. Everyone seemed to find this hilarious but him.

“You mean, this ringing?” Looking a little guilty, she shifted her weight, and the ringing echoed softly as Mal sputtered in surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Inara continued gently as she walked over to him and laid a comforting hand on his arm. “I’ll not wear these outside my shuttle, if it bothers you.” With the decorum of a queen stepping into a carriage, Inara raised the hem of her skirts a few inches, showing a golden chain dripping with tiny bells on her ankle.

“I just find the sound so relaxing.”

As he fled for the relative safety of his bunk, Mal realized that hearing laughter echoing from all corners of his ship was, in fact, worse than hearing that ringing.

**Author's Note:**

> All due appreciation and respect to Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" for River's dialogue.


End file.
